Boxing

Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Tom Loeffler believes that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has a tough fight on his hands in his title challenge against WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) on September 17 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

MANNY “Pacman” Pacquiao did not do anything new in reclaiming the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt but considering where he was coming from, his unanimous decision victory over erstwhile champion Jessie “The New Generation” Vargas was still commendable, this according to one fight analyst.

Adonis Stevenson (28-1, 23 KOs) and challenger Andrzej Fonfara (29-4, 17 KOs) both weighed in successfully for their light heavyweight clash this Saturday night on Showtime Championship Boxing at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Stevenson, 39, weighed in at 173.5 pounds. He’ll be defending his World Boxing Council light 175 lb. title. Up until Friday, Stevenson and Fonfara had seemed like old friends than two fighters about to face each in the ring. There was no animosity between them at all until today.

Adrien “The Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) put the boxing world on notice on Monday in letting his fans know that he’s moving back down to light welterweight to fight at 140 in what appears to prelude to a fight against Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs). The Broner-Garcia fight still isn’t a done deal, according to Showtime Boxing boss Stephen Espinoza.

Former 4 division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner and WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia have had preliminary discussions for a catch weight fight in the summer, according to Dan Rafael. However, the fight is far from a done deal at this point. It’s been basic starting discussions and nothing has been completed at this point.

There isn’t a date or a venue for the fight as of yet. It’s definitely a great fight, says Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza. As of now, Broner and Mikey don’t have fights scheduled. If the two of them could face each other in the summer, it would be a big fight that would interest the boxing world.

A fight between WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia and former four division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner is reportedly in the works for this summer in July. This would be a fight that would be televised on Showtime Championship Boxing. If the Broner vs. Mikey fight gets made, it would be shown on that network. It would definitely be a nice fight that would bring in ratings. Broner needs a big fight right now because he hasn’t done much with his career as of late.

The unbeaten Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) would need to move up to 140 from the 135 pound weight class for the Broner fight to happen. Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) last fought at welterweight in February against Adrian Granados.

Adrien “The Problem” Broner (33 -2-24ko) was in the ring this past weekend Versus a formidable foe in Adrian “Tigre” Granados (18-5-2). Granados’ claim to fame is knocking off the highly touted prospect Amir Imam in what was supposed to be an easy fight for Imam. Instead, Granados ruined all plans and finished Imam in shocking fashion with an 8th round TKO victory.

Former WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (31-1, 23 KOs) will be fighting this Saturday night on July 1 against fringe contender Andriy Rudenko (31-2, 19 KOs) in a 12 round fight for the vacant WBO International title at the Luzhniki in Moscow, Russia. Rudenko is rated #11 WBO, #13 IBF. This is a big step down for Povetkin from his previous fight against Johann Duhaupas, who would likely make easy work of a small heavyweight like the 6-foot Rudenko.

Golden Boy Promotions head honcho Oscar De La Hoya is surprised and not happy to learn that the odds-makers have already installed Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) as the betting favorite to defeat his guy Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) for their fight on September 16. The Canelo vs. Golovkin fight, which De La Hoya has named “Bombs Away,” was just announced last Saturday night, and the bettors have the unbeaten Kazakhstan fighter as the favorite.

It was the summer of 2004 and the GB amateur boxing team was in Athens with its sole participant for the Olympic Games, Amir Khan. Khan was a phenom. Born in Bolton, into a Punjabi Rajputs family, he had started fighting competitively at eleven years of age. In his junior amateur days, he had won English school and junior AIBA titles, and in 2003 won gold at the Junior Olympics in Detroit, Michigan. By the time the Athens games rolled around, he was firmly positioned to explode into the senior amateur ranks and the national consciousness.

IT was a relatively short workday for Filipino champion Jerwin “Pretty Boy” Ancajas at the “Battle of Brisbane” last Sunday after stopping challenger Teiru Kinoshita of Japan by technical knockout in the seventh round of their scheduled 12-rounder.

But the still IBF junior bantamweight titleholder said that had it went the full distance he was nonetheless ready.

The Marquis of Queensbury Rules for boxing were written long before Andre Ward’s parents were born. The World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association were formed long before Andre Ward was born. The ideals of “clean punching”, “effective aggression”, “ring generalship”, and “defense” were placed into the verbiage of scoring a professional boxing match long before Andre Ward laced up his first glove. Therefore the “blame” for his ability to win within the rules of the sport by which he has made his living cannot be placed on his shoulders.

Unbeaten challenger Andre Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) is a slight favorite to beat IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KO) in their fight on November 19 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ward, 32, is the favorite by Bovada by the line -150 to +120 for Kovalev.

In watching the replay of the stoppage, Kovalev said, “Low blow, again, low blow. I don’t know why they stopped the fight. I want to get another fight. I’ll kick his [expletive]. I want to get a rematch again.”

Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev both tipped the scales at 175 pounds at their weigh-in for Saturday night’s rematch at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two fighters looked in great shape with neither of them appearing weight drained. Ward, 33, looked a little tired, but other than that, he looked in fighting shape. The two fighters had a long stare down with Ward saying something to Kovalev while smiling at him.